BBC bans Teletubbies from advertising unhealthy foods

The Teletubbies and Tweenies are to be banned from promoting unhealthy children's food, the BBC announced yesterday.

The change follows intense pressure from food campaigners concerned that pre-school television characters are used to sell foods high in salt, sugar and fat.

Last year, a report from the Food Commission revealed that a small can of Teletubbies pasta shapes with sausages contained more salt than the entire daily recommended intake for a six-year-old.

Licensing children's characters is a profitable sideline for BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, raising around £1 million a year.

More than 100 products feature BBC-owned characters, including cake mixes, pasta shapes, fromage frais, chocolate bars, jellies and Easter eggs. Under the new guidelines, drawn up with the Food Standards Agency, BBC characters will be used to promote only relatively healthy food.

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Tweenies and Teletubby chocolate bars, marshmallows and jellies will disappear completely, although the characters will still be allowed to appear on Easter eggs and birthday cakes.

Within two years, fromage frais, ready meals, pizza and canned pasta will have far less salt and sugar, the BBC said.

BBC Worldwide is already in talks with food manufacturers to change the recipes. It will license a new range of staple food products such as fruit, vegetables, bread, cereals, potatoes, meat, fish and dairy products.

The Fimbles, Bill and Ben and Andy Pandy will also be covered by the new rules. However other favourites, such as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and Postman Pat are not owned by the BBC. Rupert Gavin, the chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said: "We are conscious of the small but high-profile part we play through our licensing of children's TV characters to food manufacturers.

This has been an extensive review of our food products and the new criteria will be indicative of how seriously we take our responsibility towards children's nutrition. Over the next two years we aim to be pioneers in leading the way in children's character food licensing."

Nutritional organisations welcomed the change and urged the owners of other children's characters to follow suit.

Tim Lobstein, the director of the Food Commission, said: "For over two years we have urged the BBC to take children's health seriously when allowing their popular characters to be used to sell sweets, puddings and processed meals to children. We hope to see other character licensing agencies follow the BBC's lead voluntarily or they may find themselves forced to change by regulation."

According to the commission, Bob the Builder pasta sauce, manufactured by HP, contains 2.5g of salt - above the recommended level for a three-year-old.

A spokesman for Hit Entertainment, the company that owns the rights to the character, was surprised by the salt content. "We will work with HP to ensure that the salt levels fall within the Government's guidelines," he said. The company was already in talks with Heinz to lower the salt content of Thomas the Tank Engine pasta shapes.

Dr Susan Jebb, of the Medical Research Council, said: "There is growing evidence that the seeds of adult diseases are sown in childhood. It is important that food manufacturers and advertisers work together with parents to establish healthy eating habits."